


S11E01 - The Man Who Fell to Earth

by Suzanne_Ely



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-10 04:03:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 13,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17418731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suzanne_Ely/pseuds/Suzanne_Ely
Summary: Imagine… What if the Twelfth Doctor was back? What if the last seconds of ‘Twice Upon a Time’ had seen him regenerate and get the face he was already wearing?In other words:‘What if Twelve was still around in Series 11?’I’ve been toying with this idea, and because I love challenges, I decided to give it a go, by rewriting episodes from Series 11.While I’ll stick to the original script whenever it’s possible, the fact that a different Doctor will be around will change things. You may see familiar scenes, but you may also see some differences! So consider yourself warned, this is a mirror universe of Series 11!





	1. The Boy Riding His Bicycle

**Author's Note:**

> In the wake of recent tensions in the Doctor Who fan base, please note that I have no intention in antagonizing any fan by writing this fan fiction. I respect Whovians’ opinions regarding the real Series 11, may they like or dislike the series. Please be kind, and return me the same favour. Writing this fan fiction is a lot of work, I spend hours writing it, so please respect that. You might not be a Capaldian, you might not like Twelve, but I am and I do, that’s why I started this project in the first place.  
> So please, no hate. 
> 
> Constructive criticism is welcome, though! I’m always looking forward to an honest critic that will allow my writing to improve. It’s a work in progress, so feel free to step in, and share some of your thoughts with me.
> 
> I would like to extend a huge thank you to Chrissie (Chakoteya.net) for the transcripts of the episodes. They were very helpful!
> 
> Disclaimer:  
> This is purely a work of fan fiction, meaning that I’m just having a lot of fun writing it, and that all copyrights remain the sole property of the BBC and the rightful owners.

The video on the YouTube Channel revealed Ryan Sinclair, a wannabe blogger with little success so far.

‘So today I want to talk about the greatest woman I ever met. Smart, funny, caring, special. Proper special. Er, where do I start? Okay, I’ve mentioned this on here before. I’m pretty much not an idiot. I’m actually a capable guy, considering. But I’m 19, and cos of the thing I told you before, I can’t yet ride a bike.’

His memories took him back to the Moors, with his grandmother and her husband.

‘Who says you can’t?’ Asked Grace, referring to the biking part.

‘Me, Nan. We keep trying this,’ he sighed.

This was starting to become an ordeal, and Ryan had a feeling that it would soon end up being his biggest failure. But his grandmother wouldn’t have any of this:

‘And we’ll go on trying till it’s done. Now keep your eye on Grandad.’

‘You mean Graham,’ Ryan corrected.

There was no way he was going to call this bloke Grandad.

‘Keep your eye on Graham, then. Three, two, one, go! Go on!’

She gave him a push and he started to peddle unsteadily towards Graham, who was wearing a cheerful expression on his face.

‘Go on, Ryan! You’re doing it, mate!’

But the young man lost control of his bike instead, and fell off heavily.

‘Nearly,’ Grace said, trying to cheer him up.

But Ryan wasn’t in the mood for being cheered up. He had it with those attempts that were bringing him down both physically and mentally. He grabbed the bike and walked towards the cliff edge.

‘Ryan Sinclair, don’t you dare!’ His grandmother threatened him, but he just ignored her and threw the bike away, watching as it crashed down in the forest below.

 

‘Mate, you rode it for a second,’ Graham said gently to Ryan, as they were sitting on the edge of the cliff, after the throwing away incident.

Ryan was still sulking, and made a point showing it:

‘Can you stop calling me mate? Anyway, a second’s not enough.’

‘You’ll do it, if you keep on trying,’ Grace insisted.

‘I just want to make you proud,’ her grandson confessed, admitting that he wasn’t doing this for him, but for her.

Just as he expected, Grace had the perfect answer ready for him, the one that would cheer him up instantly:

‘You make me proud every day.’

But of course, Graham had to spoil the moment:

‘Anyway, you’re on your own getting that bike, cos’ our train leaves in twenty minutes. Come on, love.’

Ryan carefully went down the cliff, trying to keep the red-coloured bike on his sight. Had that thing been a darker colour, he would probably have struggled to find it. But there it was, hanging up in a tree, and the young man wondered how he would get it down. He was still thinking about a solution to his problem when a strange noise behind him made him turn around. Lines forming a glowing diamond shaped had appeared, multiplying and rotating into smaller squares like a strange 3D videogame. Some sort of dot looking like a button to press appeared in the smallest square, and Ryan simply couldn’t resist pressing it. The whole thing instantly whizzed away, and the young man turned his attention back to the bike. But then, he clearly heard something appearing behind him, and once again, he turned around, only to be blinded by a bright light that revealed some sort of blue thing with marks on it. What was this thing and where did it come from? This probably wasn’t safe, but Ryan tried to touch it anyway, only to pull his hand away in pain. That thing was freezing cold!

This was too weird to go unnoticed, and Ryan did the next best thing he could think of. He took his phone and dialled a number.

‘Hi. Er, Police, maybe.’


	2. Wait, Do I Know You?

The young police constable walked towards two neighbours loudly arguing in the middle of a residential street, and didn’t need to ask what the issue was. Both women were too happy to complain about each other’s actions.

‘She smashed it with a hammer!’ Yelled the first one.

’Cos you keyed me nearside door!’ Argued the second one.

‘Because you parked in my spot!’

‘It’s not your spot. There are no spots.’

Meanwhile, Yasmin, the police constable, had been assessing the damage dealt to the car windshield, and she just wondered what had gone through the neighbour’s head to take a hammer and simply smash it.

‘Ladies, please!’ She shouted, effectively breaking the argument. ‘Thank you. Can I suggest a simple solution? You pay for her cracked window, you pay for her scratched door, and we all agree that parking round here is a nightmare but that grown-ups really shouldn’t need to call the police to sort it out for them.’

Both women lowered their heads, clearly embarrassed, but Yasmin wasn’t done yet:

‘Now, if we’re all agreed on that, there’s no need for me to take any further police action and we can all get on with our lives. What do you reckon?’

Of course, they agreed… until next time…

 

Back in her car, Yasmin reported the outcome of the incident to her supervising officer, taking this opportunity to ask for more responsibilities.

’I’m just saying, I am capable of more than parking disputes. ’

‘And I keep telling you don’t run before you can walk. You’re a probationer, Yaz. Learn the basics,’ the officer replied.

‘I want to do more. Can you not get them to give me something that’ll test me? Something a bit different,’ Yasmin insisted.

Realizing that she would go on and complain about her tasks, her supervising officer checked his computer screen, browsing through the reports that were coming in.

‘There is something that just came in, if you want different.’

 

They were both gazing at the blue object, and Yasmin wondered if this was a joke.

‘And you say you just found it here?’ She asked to the young black man who was standing next to her.

‘No, I said it appeared, out of nowhere,’ he claimed, much to her annoyance.

‘Right.’

She didn’t even try to hide her feelings, making it clear that she wasn’t believing a word he was saying. But he was adamant:

‘I swear, this isn’t a prank. I came down here to get me bike.’

‘And where’s your bike?’ Asked the police constable as she was walking towards the strange thing.

‘In that tree.’

That was it. He was a lunatic, who was wasting her time.

‘Name, sir?’ She requested quite harshly.

‘Ryan Sinclair.’

She was about to write his name down on her notebook, when she paused. She knew this name. This couldn’t be a coincidence!

‘Wait. Redlands Primary?’ She enquired.

‘Yeah,’ he said, obviously surprised by her demand.

He hadn’t recognized her, so she introduced herself to him, her anger all gone now.

‘Yasmin Khan.’

‘Oh my God. Yaz. Wow.’

He was quite happy to see her, and he looked quite impressed as well.

‘I know,’ She smiled.

‘Look at you. You’re a Fed,’ he was indeed impressed.

‘Yeah. We don’t call it that. I’m still training, second year probation. What about you, what are you up to?’

‘Warehouse worker.’

‘Oh. Right. Like it?’

‘Hate it. It’s cash while I study for my NVQ. I’m trying to be a mechanic.’

‘That’s good.’

While it was nice to catch up like this with an old school friend, there was still the issue of the prank.

‘You have to take this away, though, seriously. It’s going to be dark any minute. You can’t dump this here.’

She circled around the object, examining it, wondering what it was.

‘I didn’t. I can’t even lift it,’ her friend claimed.

Now this was starting to become tiresome.

‘Oh, come on, Ryan. It’s me,’ Yasmin said, her tone expressing her disapproval.

‘Touch it,’ Ryan simply said.

‘What?’

She looked surprised, but did what she was told anyway. She carefully touched the thing, but took her hand instantly away. It was so cold it was burning!

‘See? It’s freezing,’ Ryan confirmed.


	3. Trapped!

The train was going through the landscape that was almost invisible in the night. The O’Briens were sitting in a rather empty carriage, Grace holding her husband tenderly.

‘The next station is Grindleford.’

Graham listened to the announcement, but his mind quickly dismissed it and wandered to what had happened earlier on the cliff.

‘Do you ever think he’s going to call me Grandad?’

‘Give him time,’ Grace urged him, knowing well that he was eager to be accepted by Ryan as a member of the family.

‘Three years we’ve been married.’

‘And you’ve never been happier!’

Grace leaned towards Graham and kissed him, much to the passenger across the aisle’s amusement. He was, in fact, the only other passenger in the carriage. He was young, was wearing ear buds and was checking his phone. His smile didn’t go unnoticed by Grace.

‘Can’t keep his hands off me, love,’ She told him, much to Graham’s annoyance.

‘Behave yourself.’

‘Never!’ She threatened, blowing him a kiss in the process.

 

Up in the cabin, the driver suddenly saw something sparking into the sky, and aiming straight to them. As she realized that whatever it was, it was about to hit the train, she screamed in fear, seconds before she was thrown off her dead man handle as glass came shattering inside the cabin.

The train suddenly and unexpectedly came into a halt, throwing Graham off his seat. As he was sitting on the floor, he witnessed as the lights gradually went off in the carriage, and potentially in the whole train. But his main concern was his wife’s safety.

‘You all right, love?’

‘Think so, yeah,’ Grace replied, her voice slightly trembling after the shock. ‘What just happened?’ She wondered, staring in the aisle.

‘Where you going?’ Graham asked her in bewilderment, as he understood her intentions.

‘Just having a look,’ she confirmed, before walking towards the front of the carriage.

She put her head outside an open window and saw passengers getting out of the train and running away.

‘What’re you doing? Don’t go on t’track, it could be live,’ She called out.

‘Get off of there!’ The young passenger with the ear buds yelled in the back.

Grace tried the door, but it wouldn’t open.

‘Graham, the doors just locked. We’re shut in. I can’t get them open.’

She tried to open the door from outside, but it was pointless. Graham ran to her, as she told him that something was wrong.

She was starting to be scared, and she didn’t know if it was because they were trapped, because it was dark, or because she had no idea what was going on. The young man walked past her, staring at the interior of the carriage, while listening carefully, trying to make sense of the noises he was hearing.

‘I think something’s coming down the train,’ he finally said.

Just as he had said that, a flash of bright light came from the next carriage, and Graham took things into his own hand, forcing his companion to back away.

‘Right, get away from the door. Grace, get to the back of the carriage. Get to the back.’

The three passengers ran away, closing the interconnecting doors behind them, until they reach another door that was jammed too. Graham desperately tried to push it open, but failed, just like Grace had done earlier.


	4. The Man Who Fell Through The Roof

Yaz and Ryan were heading back to the police car. It was pitch dark in the woods, but luckily the young woman had a torch with her. Ryan’s phone started ringing and he stopped to answer the call.

‘Wait, one sec. Hiya, Nan.’

Grace’s voice sounded tense when she spoke: ‘Ryan, love. Our train’s stopped between Hathersage and Grindleford, and something really weird’s going on.’

Static jammed the communication, before the line broke completely. Ryan looked both worried and confused at the same time, and Yasmin feared that something was very wrong.

‘Everything alright?’ She asked.

‘Nan?’ Called Ryan over the dead line.

But there was no answer. Something was very wrong indeed. Yaz and Ryan didn’t waste any time, and rushed to the car. A few minutes later, Yaz was speeding down a country lane, siren blaring.

 

 

Back on the train, Grace couldn’t resist checking what was actually going on, and she bravely (but slowly) walked towards the interconnecting doors they had closed earlier. She could feel that something was behind the doors, and she squinted to see what it was. She had time to make tentacles and sparking energy, before the interconnecting door was blown away, the blast pushing Grace back. Still, she wanted to know, and she made a few steps in the carriage. But when she saw the sparking multi-tentacle creature moving towards her, she took a few steps back.

‘What is it?’ Graham asked.

‘I’ve no idea.’

Grace wasn’t fascinated, she was terrified. Electrical discharges coming from the creature forced them back against the final door. Graham tried to open it, but it wouldn’t move. He could feel that he was on the brink of panic, and so were Grace and the young man. There was no way out of this.

That’s precisely when someone came crashing through the roof. Startled, the three passengers watched as a man struggled to get back on his feet. He was in his late fifties, had dishevelled silver hair and his clothes were torn. But it was the eyebrows that were impressive. They made him look angry despite the fact that he looked a bit confused.

‘Ooch, that hurt,’ he said in a Scottish accent, still trying to catch his breath from the fall.

He then considered the three people staring at him in bewilderment.

‘What?’ He asked, and they pointed at something behind him. ‘Oh, I see!’

Acting quickly, he grabbed one of the dangling electrical cables and thrust it into the creature, effectively turning the energy sparking off.

‘That should buy us a few seconds.’

His companions were looking at the hole on the roof, and he just waved their concern away.

‘I do that all the time!’

He was trying to be casual about it, but failed when his legs gave up and he had to grab the back of one seat to avoid falling on the ground.

‘Okay, maybe not all the time, then.’

‘Are you alright?’ Graham asked.

‘Doors?’ He replied with another question.

‘Locked shut,’ said Grace.

‘Not for long,’ the Doctor smiled, and then plunged his hands in his pockets. ‘No, no, no, no…’

He frantically checked all his pockets while muttering:

‘No screwdriver, no sonic glasses.’

‘It’s coming back!’ The young passenger shouted.

And indeed it was. The creature had recovered, and was even less friendly, from the look of things. The Doctor walked towards it and stared at it.

‘What are you?’ He whispered.

As more electrical discharges came out of it, he backed away, raising his hands.

‘Alright, alright, no more questions for now.’

The creature seemed to crawl on the walls and what remained of the roof, until it eventually managed to get the young man separated from the group.

‘Get it away from me!’ He screamed in terror.

He was pinned down by the creature, and was clearly panicking. Graham was holding Grace in his arms in a protective way. There was nowhere to run.

‘All of you, stay very still,’ ordered the Doctor.

‘It’s going to kill us!’ Screamed the young man.

‘It could have done that already,’ the Time Lord shrugged, still trying to think about a solution to the problem at hands.

As if on cue, another distraction came in.

‘Nan!’

Ryan and Yasmin just entered the carriage, only to stop dead on their tracks when they saw the threatening creature.

‘Ryan, stay away!’ Grace urged her grandson.

‘Oh, my God,’ was all Yaz could say, seconds before she and the others got an electrical shock from the creature.

Despite the pain, the Doctor watched as the creature took off and left through the hole caused by his earlier fall. Then it vanished into the sky. The Time Lord steadied himself, trying to restore his balance after the nasty experience. The others seemed to be unhurt.

‘Stay here, I’ll check the rest of the train.’

He briskly walked past Ryan and Yaz, and entered the next carriage. As expected, the young woman wearing a police uniform ran after him, followed by Ryan.

‘Hey! Hold on there please, Sir. I need you to do as I say. This could be a potential crime scene.’

The Doctor turned and faced her:

‘I don’t have time for this. When is the next train due?’

 ‘This is the last one back,’ Ryan replied.

‘Were you on the train?’

 ‘No. Nan called me. We came as soon as possible.’

Ryan shivered when he saw the man frown. This was clearly someone who was used to being in charge, and who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

‘The doors are locked. How did you both get in?’

‘Driver’s window was smashed in,’ explained Yaz, as the Doctor resumed walking.

‘How do they call you?’

‘PC Khan, Hallamshire Police.’

‘Name, not title.’

‘Yasmin Khan. Yaz to my friends. Can I have your name, please?’

The Doctor paused again, then slowly turned around to face her:

‘No.’

Yasmin’s eyes widened in surprise.

‘No? What do you mean “no”?’

‘Just what it means. No.’

As the Time Lord was about to turn again, she grabbed his arm, and her face expressed an even bigger surprise. There, just for a moment, she could swear she had seen his fingers glow; a warm yellow light pulsing from inside. She looked up, and saw that his features had softened.

‘I’m not sure that I know who I am anymore. I’m not supposed to wear this face again, you see?’ He told them while pointing at his head, as to make a point.

Yasmin and Ryan exchanged a puzzled glance.

‘And you? Do you know who you are?’ The Doctor asked Ryan out of the blue.

‘Yeah,’ the young man nodded. ‘My name is Ryan Sinclair.’

‘Good for you!’

They entered the driver’s cabin, and Yasmin flashed her torch around, allowing the Doctor to find and operate the controls.

‘Power, lights, doors.’

Then he looked down.

‘Dead driver.’

Yaz and Ryan shone their lamp on the woman’s body, while the Time Lord made a visual inspection of her.

‘That thing must’ve killed her as it came through.’ Ryan decided.

“Must it?’ The Doctor wondered. ‘It didn’t kill anyone else. It looks like she died of shock when it smashed through the window.’

‘Either way, a woman has died here,’ confirmed the police constable.

‘But no more creatures, and no other passengers left on board. Let’s get back to the others,’ the Time Lord decided.


	5. Stick With Me!

The Doctor was walking down the train that looked singularly less creepy now that the lights were on.

‘Wait. Can you stop, please? This could be a major incident. I’m the one in charge here.’

Yasmin was hurrying to catch up with the Doctor and she almost bumped into him when he stopped and faced her.

‘Says who?’

This man was so weird! The young woman couldn’t shake the idea that there was something really different about him, but she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to know what it was or not.

‘See my uniform? It says police. I’m the police, and this is police business.’

‘Yeah, well I have a police box that also says police on it, but that doesn’t make me the police nor is this police business.’

Was he trying to be infuriating on purpose? Yasmin decided that she had enough of this, and she grabbed her radio.

‘What are you doing?’ The Doctor asked her.

‘Calling it in to my station.’

‘What are you going to tell them?’

‘The facts.’

‘Which are?’

‘The train was attacked.’

‘By what?’

Yaz broke eye contact with the Doctor. She couldn’t stand seeing this little smile of his, as if he knew already that he would win the argument in the end.

‘I need to take a look at CCTV footage,’ she admitted.

The Scotsman started to laugh, and she resisted a sudden urge to slap him in the face.

‘And why do you need to check CCTV when we all saw it with our own eyes?’

Ryan intervened, preventing her from replying:

‘Was it an alien? Because it looked like an alien to me.’

‘Oh, come on.’ Yasmin sighed.

The Doctor locked his eyes on hers:

‘What, you think he’s wrong?’ He asked.

‘No, I dunno, but...’

‘But you’re worried about how you’ll explain all this to a superior officer who won’t believe you.’

Did this man just have answers to everything?

‘I can’t not report it.’

She had a duty to report it, she had a job to do, and she wasn’t going to let a strange man with a Scottish accent tell her otherwise.

‘You could hold off until we get the answers to the bigger questions.’

‘Which are?’ Yasmin asked, pretending to go along with his plan.

‘What was it? Why is it here? Where’s it going next? And, most importantly, how do we stop it? Because whatever it is, I don’t think it’s done. Come on, Ryan. Come on, Jazz.’

Yasmin rolled her eyes as Ryan burst into a laugh.

‘What?’ The Doctor asked, confused about their reactions.

‘It’s Yaz,’ the police constable explained. ‘My friends call me Yaz.’

‘Oh, but we are not friends,’ the Time Lord said with confidence. ‘Not now anyway. So I can as well keep calling you Jazz. Come on. Chop chop!’

 

Even though she didn’t report the incident yet, Yasmin was keen on doing things the proper way, and therefore she took witness details, starting with the only other passenger apart from Grace and Graham.

‘It’s er Karl Wright. Middle name’s Brian. 52 Northover Street.’

‘Telephone number?’

‘Right then,’ the Doctor said loudly, calling in some sort of meeting, and interrupting Yasmin’s work in the process. ‘Where were we?’

‘You came crashing through that roof,’ Grace pointed out.

‘I was thrown out of my Tardis.’

The Doctor paused, remembering the events leading to his fall.

‘It couldn’t cope. It was exploding because of me, because of who I was. It shouldn’t be permitted. It isn’t permitted. I can’t be the same, twice.’

The Time Lord felt suddenly weak, and Ryan helped him to one of the seats.

‘It dematerialized,’ the Doctor continued. ‘Now I’m stuck here with this face, and with you lot.’

He looked at them, his face a mix of different expressions. Sadness, confusion, pain, even sorrow. But his eyes were shining with determination.

‘Are we supposed to understand anything you’re saying?’ Wondered Graham.

‘He thinks that thing is an alien,’ Ryan told him.

‘Don’t be daft. There’s no such thing as aliens. Anyway even if there was, they ain’t going to be on a train in Sheffield.’

The Doctor got up and faced him:

‘Why not? I’m alien and I’m here.’

Graham shook his head. This was pointless. The man was a nutter.

‘Grace, we’re going.’

But his wife had other plans:

‘No, we’re not. He just saved our lives.’

‘I get it,’ the Doctor said, walking about all lively again, waving his hands as he spoke. ‘All of this is new to you, and new can be scary. But don’t you want answers?’

He stared at them, and then smiled broadly:

’Of course you do! Stick with me, you might get some. ’

Karl cleared his throat and stepped into the conversation:

‘Actually, I don’t want answers. I just want to get to work and forget all about this. If that’s alright with everyone. Even if it isn’t. Thank you.’

‘Would you like me to...’ Yasmin started to talk, but he interrupted her. ‘No! Thank you. I er, just want to be on my own. I’ll walk. I need the air. And I’m with him.’ He glanced at Graham. ‘We don’t get aliens in Sheffield.’

‘I think he’s still in shock, bless him,’ said Grace as they all watched him leave the train.

‘Alright!’ The Doctor clapped his hands together. ‘Obvious question, but has anyone noticed anything else out of the ordinary tonight?’

Yaz glanced at Ryan, who slowly raised his hand.

 

‘I’m going to be in such trouble if they find out I were there,’ Yaz worried as she was driving through the night.

The Doctor was on the front passenger seat, staring at a set of buttons specifically designed for police cars. As he approached a tempted finger towards one of the buttons, Yasmin instantly reacted.

‘Don’t touch that!’

The Time Lord looked at her apologetically, and asked in a hopeful tone:

‘Can we have the lights and siren on?’

‘No! I shouldn’t be doing any of this.’

The Doctor sighed heavily, and then turned his attention to the passengers sitting in the back seats.

‘So you three know each other?’

Grace nodded:

‘I’m his Nan. Graham’s me husband.’

‘Second husband,’ Ryan corrected.

The Doctor stared at the two young people.

‘And you two know each other?’

‘Yeah, Yaz and I were at school together.’

‘Not Yasmin Khan?’ Grace intervened.

‘Hello, Ryan’s Nan,’ the police constable replied cheerfully.

‘Haven’t you done well for yourself, love.’

The Doctor cut the friends reunion short by asking Ryan:

‘And you say you just found it there, this thing?’

‘Yeah, pretty much. I took pictures.’

‘Of course you did. I simply hope that you didn’t share it on whatever social media you’re hooked on,’ he grumbled.

He looked at the pictures and his face darkened. Even the eyebrows looked angrier.

‘Go as fast as you can, Jazz.’

 

Now that it was dark in the woods, finding a red bicycle wasn’t so easy anymore. Luckily, Ryan and Yasmin had memorized its location, and they eventually found it.

‘There’s my bike,’ Ryan announced, pointing his torch up at a tree.

‘In a tree?’ The Doctor wondered.

‘He gets cross cos he can’t ride it,’ Graham explained.

‘We’re giving him lessons. He’s got dyspraxia. It’s a coordination disorder.’

The Time Lord knew what it was, but couldn’t be interested less right now.

‘Enough about me,’ said Ryan. ‘The tree’s to the left so it should be...’

Much to his dismay, there was nothing there. Correction, the shape of the thing was imprinted in the ground, but the object itself was gone.

‘It was definitely there,’ Yasmin confirmed.

‘So where is it now?’ Asked the Doctor, a concerned expression on his face.


	6. Everything’s Out Of The Ordinary

No one noticed the white van that ran through the sleeping streets of Sheffield and stopped in an industrial unit. It looked ordinary, and yet there was something not ordinary about it.

The driver and his passenger carefully unloaded their precious cargo and placed it inside the building.

‘Rahul, if you’re right about that, should we not tell someone?’

The man’s name was Andy. He didn’t seem too confident about the job they had done. Driving to the woods and picking up an alien item was a bit unnerving. Now, the strange object was standing there, in the middle of the garage.

‘What good would that do?’ His friend replied.

’I’m worried for you, mate.’

And that was the truth. Rahul hadn’t been the same since the incident. He had become obsessed with his quest.

‘I’ve finally got it. Go on, mate, have a pint on me. I’ll see you Monday. Pick you up at eight.’

It was all too clear that he wanted to be alone, and Andy complied, almost happy that he wouldn’t have to bear the sight of the strange object.

As soon as he was gone, Rahul taped video cameras to concrete posts all around the item, then took a chair and sat down in front of the thing, staring at it.

 

‘Two weird things, one city, same night, makes me nervous. Especially on this occasion. Why does it have to be tonight?’ The Doctor mused, as he got out of the car with Grace, Ryan and Graham.

They had discussed their options on the way back. It had taken a lot of convincing from Grace, but Graham had eventually agreed to consider that something really strange was going on, and that they were the only ones able to investigate, since they had witnessed unexplained events firsthand. Yasmin was quite excited about the prospect of having a real police matter to take care of:

‘I’ll see if there have been any more reports on that object,’ she said, as she dropped them off.

‘Good. We need all the information we can get. Meet us back here,’ the Doctor said.

‘I could have a word with some of my old pals from work. If you want to know what’s happening, ask a bus driver,’ Graham offered, and the Time Lord was quite pleased with his reaction.

‘He always says that,’ Ryan sighed.

‘Yeah, that’s cos it is true. I’d still be doing it now if I could.’

Ryan realized that he was a bit jealous of the man’s connexions, and he forced himself to think about a suggestion that might make him look important in the stranger’s eyes.

‘I can search for weird stuff on social media,’ he decided.

‘I’ll check in with my nurses group on WhatsApp,’ said Grace.

She frowned when she realized that the Doctor had suddenly turned pale. He was looking in the distance, as if he was deep in his thoughts, but Grace knew better. For a self proclaimed alien, he seemed to have a very human metabolism. He was not feeling well.

‘That was a big fall you had, love. We should get you checked out at A&E.’

‘No,’ the Doctor said. ‘Absolutely not. Hospitals have this terrible habit of killing me whenever I go there.’

Grace, Graham and Ryan didn’t have time to take his words in. The Doctor collapsed. Ryan instinctively caught him, preventing him from crashing on the solid concrete. The Time Lord had passed out.

 

Unaware about the Doctor’s condition, Yasmin had reached the police station, and she was experiencing some difficulties getting what she came looking for.

’Yaz, you’ve done your shift. Stop pestering me for more interesting shouts. ’

This was not the answer she had been expecting.

’It’s not that. I’m just wondering whether there’s been anything else out of the ordinary tonight.’

’It’s the night shift in Sheffield. Everything’s out of the ordinary. ’

That was it. Her enquiry had been a complete failure.

 

Graham didn’t have more luck at the bus station.

‘I’ve got to ask you, any talk of weird stuff or strange creatures out tonight?’

‘My wife’s out with her mates at karaoke, if that’s what you mean,’ one of the drivers replied, as the others burst into a laugh.

‘Yeah, yeah,’ said Graham, already regretting his question.

 

Meanwhile at home, Grace was checking on the Doctor while Ryan was following up on his promise to search for any mention of strange sightings online.

The Doctor was resting on the coach, and Grace worried that his condition might worsen. The strong and leading man had turned into a feeble and helpless one, and she felt sorry for him. He didn’t look well, and it was clear to her that he needed medical attention.

She checked his pulse and was on for a first surprise. Then she saw some sort of energy coursing through his body and she called her grandson:

‘Ryan, look.’

‘Whoa,’ was his reaction.

'He's got two separate pulses,' Grace added.

The Doctor exhaled the same gold energy that floated away from him, freaking both Ryan and Grace out.

‘Oh my God, what is that?’

‘I have no idea,’ confessed his grandmother.

But there was one thing both of them were sure about: the Doctor wasn’t human.


	7. DNA Bombs?

Rahul couldn’t detach his eyes from the flask thing. Something was about to happen, he knew it. The lights started to flicker, and then the alien object cracked a little like an egg. Steam started to rise from it, and yellow light streamed out.

Unknown to Rahul, the multi-tentacled thing the Doctor and the others had encountered was scanning the city from a rooftop. When Rahul’s cameras burst into flames, the man leapt back, and armed himself with a crowbar. He was ready to defend himself if need be.

 

Graham’s first reaction when Grace and Ryan told him about the Doctor’s strange condition was to check their story with his own eyes. He stared at the gold energy coursing through the veins of the sleeping man.

‘He looks better now,’ said Grace. ‘Even his pulses are getting stronger.’

Graham rolled his eyes: ‘Oh, so now you’re an expert on alien heart rate too?’

‘Don’t be so narrow-minded, love. I know that you care. He saved our lives.’

She had a point here. Despite the fact that he wished to resume his quiet life with the woman he loved, Graham couldn’t find the strength to convince her that the Doctor should go as soon as possible.

He was so deep in his thoughts that he jumped when he realized that the Time Lord had opened his eyes and was staring at him, a stern look on his face.

‘Wow! How long have you been staring like at me like that? This is creepy.’

‘No,’ the Doctor said, and struggled to come into a sitting position. ‘Creepy would be if I didn’t tell you about the DNA bombs you’re carrying.’

‘The what now?’ Asked Graham, as Ryan and Grace came closer.

‘Show me your collarbones.’

They complied and noticed the red lights flickering by their clavicles.

‘You’ve all got them. Of course,’ said the Doctor with obvious annoyance.

‘So have you,’ Ryan remarked.

‘I have? Of course I have. It makes sense.’

‘What does?’ Asked Grace.

‘Those things are micro-implants which code to your DNA. On detonation, they disrupt the foundation of your genetic code, melting your DNA. Fast and nasty and outlawed in every civilized galaxy.’

‘How did we get them?’ Wondered Ryan, with concern in his voice.

‘Never mind that, are they going to go off?’ Graham asked harshly.

‘That’s the thing. I know that I have the answer to that question, but right now I don’t. I need to remember. I need…’

He cast a glimpse on Ryan’s phone. The creature on the train was displayed on the screen.

‘I need your phone. Now.’

Ryan handed him the phone: ‘What for?’

The Doctor fiddled with it while explaining: ‘That creature, on the train when you two came on board, it zapped us all with those bombs. Very clever, but merciless. I guess that you would mind if I reformatted your phone?’

‘Of course! All my stuff’s on there!’

‘Typical Clara,’ muttered the Doctor. ‘Keeping all possessions in one place so if anything happens to it, you lose everything.’

‘Doctor? You’re not making sense again!’ Graham warned him.

Something told him that this was going to happen a lot. He then realized that they were stuck with him as long as those bombs were inside them.

The Doctor looked up at Ryan: ‘Your stuff, on a cloud. Protected. Safe. Capisce?’

‘Yes… I guess so,’ Ryan stammered. ‘But what about the bombs?’

Grinning broadly, the Time Lord got up, put his torn jacket on and triggered the app.

’Off we go!” He ordered, almost happily.

 

Rahul swallowed his fear. He had gone to great lengths to come to this result; he wasn’t going to let fear ruin everything. And yet, the creature that he was facing was scary. It was clad with metal and was obviously alien, and dangerous.

‘Where’s my sister?’

Would the creature understand him? It obviously did, because it replied in fluent English:

‘Ask me again.’

The alien was now really close, and Rahul forced himself to be brave.

‘Where’s my sister?’ He repeated, trying to keep his voice steady.

Panic rushed through his veins when the creature replied:

‘You will never know.’

The alien then put its gauntlet on Rahul’s head, and the man started screaming in pain.


	8. Pudding Brains

Grace was driving an elderly car, following the Doctor’s directions.

‘Next left.’

Yasmin, Ryan and Graham were sitting in the back of the car.

‘Where are we driving to?’ The police constable asked.

‘I reckon she’s using my phone to track the origin signal for the DNA bombs,’ answered Ryan.

He was feeling clever now, plus he was kind of proud that the Doctor was using his phone as a makeshift GPS device.

‘Again, how long till they go off?’

Graham was clearly worried, but the Time Lord was in a hurry to find the creature.

‘Don’t know.’

‘Well, can’t we just defuse them?’ Graham insisted.

‘Not without the right equipment, which I don’t have. Left again.’

They had entered an industrial area. Grace stopped the car, and they all got out, looking around them. The area was gloomy, the perfect place for an alien invasion to start… The Doctor was still checking on his application.

‘We’re close.’

A nearby explosion confirmed his statement, and they were about to follow that direction, when a metal-clad creature appeared.

’Who are you?’ The Doctor asked. ‘Not human, that much I can see. Looking after your tentacle-y friend?’

The creature didn’t reply. Instead, it turned around and ran away.

‘Why do they always have to run away when I need answers?’

He chased the creature, leaving the rest of the group behind.

‘Wait, is that another alien?’ Ryan wondered.

‘Looks like it!’ His grandmother answered, and he could swear that she sounded excited.

Both ran after the Doctor.

‘Why are they running at another alien?’ Graham wondered.

‘Don’t just stand there, come on!’ Yasmin urged him, and she started running too.

‘Now you’re all running at it!’ Graham sighed, but he ran after them anyway.

A few minutes later, the Doctor stopped, out of breath.

‘Lost it. Ah well, we will surely cross paths again soon. It’s usually how it works.’

‘In here!’ Ryan suddenly called out.

 

They entered into an industrial unit and split up to search the place. Soon, Graham made a grim discovery.

‘Got a man down over here.’

They gathered around Rahul’s lifeless body.

‘That thing must’ve killed him. I’ve never seen injuries like these,’ Grace noted.

‘It doesn’t look like a weapon blast, more like an ice burn,’ the Doctor observed.

‘It broke his jaw open too,’ Grace added.

‘And took one of his teeth. What sort of creature kills someone and then stops to pull out a tooth? Even dentists don’t go as far as killing people to pull out their teeth.’

Grace stared at the Doctor, wondering if he was making fun of the situation, but he looked as stern as usual.

’I’ll find something to cover the body,’ she decided.

The Time Lord remained silent. He wasn’t responsible for tonight’s events; it wasn’t his fault if the creature on the train planted the bombs on them; and yet he was feeling guilty, as if he had let them down somewhere along the road.

‘I’m sorry that I haven’t figured out what is going on yet,’ he apologized, but nobody listened to him.

Ryan had made an important discovery.

‘This is it. This is the thing.’

He was standing in front of a strange flask shaped object. Yasmin frowned when she saw it:

‘It was all sealed up earlier. Looks like it’s been broken.’

‘Or it’s done what it came here for. It’s some sort of transport chamber, presumably for that thing we just saw in the alley. But why here? Why tonight?’ The Time Lord wondered.

Ryan cleared his throat:

‘Actually, that might have been me.’

The Doctor cast him a suspicious glance: ‘Meaning?’

’When I went to get me bike, there were this line in the air. And then it moved, and there were shapes,” the young man explained.

‘And?’ The Time Lord asked.

‘And I touched one.’

The Doctor sighed: ‘Of course you did.’

Grace looked shocked.

‘Ryan!’

‘You all would’ve done the same,’ he tried to defend himself.

‘I wouldn’t,’ Graham said.

‘I would have,’ the Time Lord admitted.

‘Right, the shapes disappeared. A few seconds later, that appeared. What’ve I done?’ Asked Ryan.

The Doctor shrugged: ‘Who knows.’

But Graham wasn’t decided to let him go that easily with it:

‘I suppose you’ll be blaming this on the dyspraxia as well. Can’t ride a bike, started an alien invasion.’

‘Graham,’ Grace intervened.

‘What?’

‘Enough, love.’

‘All right, I made a mistake. But why did that guy move this thing from the Peaks to here? And how did he even know it were there?’ Ryan insisted.

‘Good question,’ the Time Lord said.

Yasmin had remained still during the family argument, not daring taking sides, even if she felt sorry for her friend. Now that the argument was over, she dared make a suggestion:

‘Let’s take a look round here, see what we can find.’

The Doctor shook Ryan’s phone, then held it over his head, as if searching for a network signal.

‘Just as I thought: the tracking has been blocked. Did it figure out what I was doing?’

‘If we were tracking bomb signals from that creature from t’train, why did they lead us here?’Grace wondered.

’Another good question,” said the Doctor. ‘But how can I answer it if I can’t even analyse things properly?’

The Time Lord looked around him and clapped his hands together:

‘Stupid, stupid me! Everything was right in front of me! How do you cope having pudding brains? I know I wouldn’t. Seeing, but not observing. So unlike me, and you do it all the time!’

He briskly turned around and walked toward a workbench, while the others exchanged a surprised look.

‘Pudding brains?’


	9. All of you, just shut up!

Yasmin was trying her best to comfort Ryan after the small argument he had with his family.

‘It’s not your fault, all this.’

‘Yeah, it basically is.’

‘You couldn’t have known that was going to happen.’

‘Maybe tell Graham that.’

The young man was sulking, that pretty much was obvious. She had to find a way to cheer him up and focus his attention elsewhere.

‘He knows, really,’ she said, before asking, out of the blue: ‘Do you believe he’s an alien?’

Ryan didn’t take long to answer:

‘Yeah, I think I do, yeah. Is that mad?’

‘No. I think I do too.’

‘Hey, look in here.’

They had found Rahul’s office. There was a missing person poster on the wall as well as a file of strange happenings over Sheffield. More importantly, there was a computer and Ryan decided to check it.

‘Hey, look at this.’

Yasmin did as he said and looked at the screen. A video file was in the centre of the screen. The title made her shiver. If I Die Click Here.

 

While everyone was searching the place, Graham took this opportunity to talk to the Doctor, man to man. Or rather man to alien.

‘You don’t look like an alien,’ he said.

The Time Lord didn’t interrupt his work.

‘I may not look like an alien, but I’m alien, more than you can even imagine. And I’m not only referring to my cardiovascular system.’

‘Yeah. I guess that the pudding brain mention is a clue as well. Thanks for that by the way.’

‘You’re welcome. I find that telling the truth usually prevents misunderstandings...’

He paused and stared at Graham, realizing that his facial expression contradicted his words.

‘Oh, you’re being sarcastic. I love a good sarcasm once in a while. But right now, I’m busy.’

The Doctor continued working, melting things, welding others, until he brandished what looked like a steampunk prop.

‘State of the art screwdriver!’ The Time Lord announced proudly.

He pressed a button, but the sonic didn’t react. He then shook it vigorously, and the object lit up and buzzed.

Ryan showed up at that exact moment, looking puzzled, before he remembered why he had come.

‘Hey, we found a load of stuff.’

 

They were all watching the screen displaying the video Rahul had recorded.

‘It’s come back. The thing I saw the night my sister... Everyone always says disappeared, but I know she was taken. Seven years now, tracking energy signals, building predictive programmes so that I’d know when the atmospheric disruptions matched what happened that day. And tonight it came back again and I’ve got it. I am going to find out what happened to my sister. If anything happens to me, her name was Asha. Don’t let anyone else go through this.’

‘He knew what he was doing might kill him,’ Ryan said, obviously impressed by the man’s bravery.

‘She was his family,’ the Doctor stated as if it explained everything.

He walked away and used his sonic screwdriver to analyse the remains of the container. The others followed him.

‘Did you just make that?’ Ryan wondered.

‘Sonic screwdriver. Multi-purpose tool: scanner, diagnostics, tin opener. Think about it as an alien Swiss Army knife. Only without the knife. Only idiots carry knives. I don’t like weapons. I don’t like the military.’

‘What are you doing with it?’ The young man continued, ignoring the ramblings about the knife.

‘Mapping the distance this object has travelled. It looks like it started over 5,000 galaxies away.’

‘How can you tell?’

Yasmin had a feeling that the Time Lord had an answer to pretty much everything, and indeed he had.

‘That bit there. Recall circuitry. It’s designed for a return journey.’

‘So whatever killed that bloke will have to come back here?’ Sighed Graham.

‘Question is, why did it leave? What’s it looking for?’

The Time Lord was thinking out loud.

‘What’s your best guess, love?’ Grace asked, because it was obvious that he had a theory.

‘Two aliens, one city, one night. Best guess? Two species at war, using Earth as a battleground.’

Yasmin stared at him in shock:

‘Are you joking?’

The Doctor frowned:

‘Do I look like I’m joking? I never joke when it comes to alien species threatening Earth. Look at the eyebrows. They’ll confirm it.’

‘So... so you’re saying that the creature on the train and the thing that came out of here, they’re now looking for each other spoiling for a scrap?’ Graham intervened.

‘Bit more than a scrap.’

Passed her initial surprise, Yasmin realized that she wanted to fight back. It was her duty to protect her home. That’s why she had wanted to become a police officer in the first place.

‘What are we going to do? Cos this is my home, and I’m not having it being an alien battleground.’

The Time Lord had started gathering supplies. He was already devising a plan.

‘Easy. We capture them, send them home. Away from each other, and away from Earth.’

The Time Lord was making it sound like it was very easy, but somehow Ryan doubted that the two aliens wouldn’t oppose any resistance.

‘How do we do that?’

‘I’m working on it.’

‘Not to sound like a stuck record, but can I just ask about these DNA bombs? Like, how long have we got left?’ Graham asked, much to the Doctor’s annoyance.

‘Shut up now. All of you, just shut up! How am I supposed to work if you keep interrupting me? I haven’t forgotten about your collarbones. I’m multitasking, or rather I’m multi-thinking right now. Have you seen a blackboard? I’d like to have a blackboard. Or my Tardis. Or both. And my sunglasses.’

The Time Lord shook his head as if he was casting away all distracting thoughts, while his companions exchanged worried glances.

Graham’s phone suddenly rang, and he answered:

‘Hello? Yeah, Kevin. No, no mate. That’s exactly the sort of thing.’


	10. Cheat!

In an alleyway, Dean was trying to keep his balance. He was drunk and hungry. Whose idea had it been to put salad in his takeaway burger? He was throwing the unwanted bits of salad when someone dressed as an alien stepped in front of him.

‘Halloween’s next month, mate.’

Dean threw salad at him: ‘Eat my salad, Halloween!’

The drunk learnt that it is very rude to throw salad at people the hard way. The alien grabbed his head and suddenly Dean wasn’t drunk anymore. He screamed in pain until the end. When it was over, the alien removed a tooth from his mouth.

 

They had reached the rooftop where the multi-tentacled creature was buzzing with electricity. The Doctor clamped a crocodile clip attached to a car battery to a fire escape ladder and shouted at the creature.

‘Hello there! Enjoying the view?’

Then addressing to Grace: ‘Now!’

Grace jabbed the device with a drill, and the effect was immediate. The creature was instantly deactivated and crashed on the ground.

‘Get in! It actually worked!’ Ryan wondered as they approached the alien thing.

‘Of course it worked,’ the Time Lord snapped at him. ‘I know what I’m doing. Overloaded its socket, stunned it for a bit. Not sure for how long though. Let’s not waste time. We got lucky that this Kevin friend of yours gave us this location intel.’

‘See? Always ask a bus driver,’ Graham said proudly.

The Doctor was busy scanning the creature, listing out loud what he was finding:

‘Half organic, half machine. Oh, it starts to make sense now. Clever… so clever. Dozens of Gathering Coils lashed together and augmented into one super-creature…’

‘Gathering Coils?’ Repeated Ryan.

‘These tentacle-y things are creatures which gather information.’

‘So that’s an alien species?’ Yasmin asked.

‘Not really. More of a semi-species. Weaponised bio-tech.’

‘You said there were two aliens in a battle.’

‘I did, but I was obviously wrong. Let me see if I can access the data…’

He stuck the screwdriver into the coils and an image was projected.

‘It’s Karl from the train!’ Exclaimed Graham.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow:

‘Karl is the data. That’s what it was gathering on the train.’

‘But what would the alien want with him?’ Graham wondered.

The Time Lord didn’t have time to reply. A deep menacing voice could be heard behind them.

‘Which one of you shall I kill first?’

The armoured alien was there, facing them. The Doctor took the lead, placing himself in front of the group.

‘What about no one else dies tonight? What about you pack up your things and leave this planet?’

The alien didn’t look very impressed.

‘You’re interfering in things you don’t understand.’

‘Well, that’s a hobby of mine, really. One should always have a hobby.’

‘You’re not human. Who are you?’

‘Who wants to know?’

The alien removed its faceplate, revealing that his head is studded with teeth. Grace, Graham, Ryan and Yaz looked horrified, but the Doctor had seen far scarier.

‘A Stenza warrior wears his conquests. You may tell your children you were once privileged to encounter Tzim-Sha of the Stenza.’

‘Tim Shaw?’ The Time Lord repeated, breaking the dramatic effect of the alien’s speech.

‘Tzim-Sha.’

‘Tim Shaw.’

‘Tzim-Sha!’

‘Don’t bother,’ Yasmin intervened. ‘He is terrible with names. He calls me Jazz when really it’s Yaz. But of course… you don’t care. Right.’

She could tell that the alien was losing patience with the Doctor, who in turn had no intention of making it easy for the creature.

‘Tzim-Sha! Soon to be leader of the Stenza warrior race, conquerors of the Nine Systems.’

‘When you say soon to be leader, what are you now, the office junior?’

Graham stared at the Time Lord as if he had lost his mind:

‘Don’t wind him up!’ He urged him.

‘Tonight is my challenge. Trace and obtain the selected human trophy,’ Tzim-Sha continued, while the Doctor tried to get any information possible out of it.

‘It’s a hunt. You’re on a hunt.’

‘Well done. Your tiny mind must be burning with such effort.’

‘Oi! I surely can cope!’

‘The challenge is simple. Our leaders randomly designate a selected human. I’m sent here, alone, no weapons, no assistance. I must locate and obtain the trophy and return home with it, victorious. By doing this, I ascend to leader. This is the ritual of the Stenza.’

A cold shiver went down Yasmin’s spine: ‘And it’s happened before. Rahul’s sister,’ she realized.

‘Earth is not a hunting ground,’ said the Time Lord, his voice alarmingly menacing.

The others couldn’t see his face, but they guessed that the eyebrows were probably on high alert as well.

‘Access was granted,’ Tzim-Sha told them.

This time, Ryan couldn’t remain silent:

‘No, it wasn’t. It was a misunderstanding. Access revoked as of now, by me.’

The alien didn’t even stare at him. He was focusing his attention on the Doctor, who now looked surprisingly relaxed.

‘Just to pick up on one thing. You said the rules were no weapons, no assistance, right?’

‘Correct.’

‘How did you kill them? What caused the ice burns?’

‘We Stenza live at temperatures far below this planet, one touch of my cold skin will kill a human.’

‘Oh, I see.’ The Time Lord then pointed at the tentacle creature on the ground. ‘So, this super-powered Gathering Coil right here, you’re not meant to have it, are you?’

‘The creature is irrelevant.’

‘Oh, but quite on the contrary! You see, I think that you smuggled it ahead of you. I think it located the randomly designated human for you. I think you broke the rules. Some leader you’re going to make. Tim Shaw is a cheat!’

Tzim-Sha raised his hand, and its palm started glowing with cold energy. The Doctor backed away, gesturing his companions to do the same.

‘Alright, alright! You don’t like being called a cheat! I get that.’

But what the alien was really interested in was getting access to the Gathering Coil. It crouched, touched it and blue energy flew into it.

‘What’s it doing?’ Ryan asked the Time Lord.

‘Total transference. If you’ve finished, let’s be really clear. You’re not taking any human from Earth tonight. Leave now or we’re going to stop you.’

Tzim-Sha stared at him, and the Doctor could swear that it looked amused.

‘Good luck.’

A flash of light momentarily blinded them all, and when they opened their eyes, both Tzim-Shaw and the Gathering Coil were gone.

‘Short-range teleport. Double cheat!’ The Time Lord shouted.

Yasmin looked around, obviously puzzled:

‘Where have they gone?’

‘To hunt,’ the Doctor said gloomingly.

‘Hunt who?’ Asked Ryan.

‘Oh you, pudding brains… Must I always explain everything?’


	11. I Know You've Fallen

Karl had serious self-esteem issues. He was an introvert who didn’t think highly of himself. But lately, he had decided to do something about it, and he had started listening to motivational audio training. And there he was, in his crane cab, repeating after the recorded voice.

‘I am special. I am valued. Somebody out there wants me.’

He set his crane moving on the building site while listening and repeating the motivational sentences, unaware that down in the security hut, Dennis was having his last phone call.

‘You stay up too late, madam. Let your mum get some sleep. She works very hard for you. Mind you, I like it that you call me. Not every grandad’s this lucky.’

Dennis spotted a flash outside and decided that he should check:

‘Daisy love, I’ve got to go now. Love you loads.’

He grabbed his talkie walkie and walked out, only to find himself facing Tzim-Sha.

‘What do you think you’re...’

He never got a chance to finish his sentence or even to live another minute. The alien collected another trophy.

 

Everyone was busy in the car. Grace was driving, Yasmin was trying to get a hold on Karl, Ryan was searching for him on the internet, Graham was anxiously waiting and the Doctor was deep in his thoughts.

‘Karl’s number’s going straight to voicemail,’ the police constable said, and she sounded frustrated.

Ryan got more luck: ‘Got him. Karl Wright, operator for Skylark Building Services.’

‘I know where their site is. It ain’t far,’ Graham said, turning into a living GPS. ‘Grace, next right, love!’

 

Karl spotted something odd, and his jaw dropped. Someone was climbing up outside of the crane! He immediately got on the radio.

‘Dennis, there’s someone climbing up to me cab. Dennis? Dennis, it’s Karl!’

But no one replied to his urgent call.

 

Grace parked the car outside of the building site. It didn’t take long for the Doctor to spot the hole in the security fence, and they went through, only to discover the security guard’s lifeless body. His radio was still on, and they recognized Karl’s voice:

‘Dennis, I need help! Somebody’s on my crane!’

He sounded terrified, and the Doctor’s face darkened.

‘It’s over there,’ Graham pointed towards a crane and they all looked at it, noticing the presence of the tentacle-y thing. ‘And that creature’s guarding the bottom of it,’ he added.

’Graham, Grace, take this equipment and get everybody off this site. Everybody. And do not come back,’ the Doctor ordered, before he turned towards Ryan and Yasmin. ‘You two, with me.’

The three of them ran towards the crane that was near Karl’s one. Because of the Gathering Coil’s presence, the Time Lord had to improvise a plan. He started climbing the crane, but the police constable called him out:

‘What do we do when we get up there?’

‘Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan.’

Yasmin didn’t seem convinced:

‘Really?’ She insisted.

‘I will have by the time we get to the top.’

He sounded confident, so she followed suit, only to remember that Ryan might struggle due to his condition.

‘Are you all right with this? Cos if it’s a problem, you don’t have to do it,’ she said.

But Ryan didn’t want to be left behind. He wanted to prove to them that he was up to it.

‘I do. I can do this.’

 

Graham and Grace had found florescent vests and clipboards, and they were now posing as safety supervisors, urging everyone to leave the building site at once. They were quite convincing, and didn’t encounter any resistance from the workers.

‘Thank you very much. Total site shut down. Quick as you can, please. Thank you. Major power issues, very serious, emergency services on their way,’ Graham shouted.

‘Off-site immediately, please. Matter of urgency,’ Grace insisted, while pointing directions.

 

Horrified, Karl was staring at the thing that kept climbing up the crane.

‘You can’t come up here. Turn around please! Go on!’ Karl begged, but the alien kept climbing.

The Doctor paused as he heard the young man shouting at Tzim-Sha. There wasn’t one minute to waste.

‘Oi! Karl from the train. Up and over! Up and over!’

Karl looked at the window in bewilderment. Was that the strange Scotsman who had crashed through the train roof earlier? What was he doing here? The young man looked down at the alien, then at the crane. He then understood what the Doctor had in mind.

‘You have got to be kidding. I am valued. I am special.’

He climbed out of the hatch on the top of his cabin, still repeating motivational sentences, as a mantra.

 

Ryan and Yasmin were following the Time Lord as fast as they could. Suddenly, the police constable heard a worrying noise behind her, and she turned around only to see her friend’s torch flying away.

‘Ryan! You okay?’

He simply nodded and they kept going.

 

Karl crawled out along the long horizontal jib, as Tim-Sha reached his cabin. Realizing that it was empty, the alien angrily punched his way in, scaring the young man even more, as he heard the glass breaking noises.

‘I am confident. I achieve my goals. I achieve my goals,’ he kept repeating to himself.

 

Ryan couldn’t believe what he had just achieved. He actually climbed up a crane.

‘We made it!’ He shouted happily, before noticing just how high they were. ‘Oh! Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It’s way too high up here.’

He reached to the handrail to steady himself, while Yasmin asked the Doctor what his plan was.

‘Easy. I climb onto the arm of this crane, you swing the arm round next to Karl’s crane.’

The police constable exchanged a glance with Ryan, who expressed his doubts about this plan.

‘Oh no, you’re kidding.’

He wasn’t.

‘Karl steps across, you swing the arm away, I get him back in here. And then we find a way to convince our teeth-y friend over there that it is time for him to go home.’

The Time Lord fumbled in his pockets and took out a large collection of keys:

‘I got these downstairs. Might come in handy to work the crane. Now go.’

Once again, Ryan and Yasmin exchanged a confused look, but they obeyed and hurried towards the cabin, while the Doctor headed out along the long horizontal jib, trying to hurry while keeping his balance.

‘Way too high,’ he grumbled.

‘I know you’ve fallen.’

The voice stopped him dead on his tracks.

It couldn’t be.

He slowly turned around, and there she was, leaning on her umbrella, smiling broadly at him.

‘Missy!’

‘Did you miss me?’ She asked, blowing the Time Lord a kiss, as he fell on his knees, his breath short and ragged.

‘You…are… not… real,’ he gasped.

He curled over his knees, and rested his head on his crossed arms, his eyes closed, trying his best to fight the sudden panic attack that had overcome him.

Back in the cabin, Yasmin and Ryan looked as pieces of golden energy floated away from the Doctor.


	12. What Are We Going To Do?

Grace and Graham were back inside the building site, but the retired bus driver wasn’t very comfortable with disobeying the Doctor’s orders.

‘Grace, he explicitly said not to come back. It’s not safe.’

They looked as the Gathering Coil was climbing up the second crane.

‘Look, it’s swapped cranes. It’s trying to bring it down. We have to stop it,’ his wife replied, before handing him her florescent vest and storming off.

 

Meanwhile, Karl had reached the far end of the jib, while Yasmin and Ryan were busy trying to find a way to use the controls. They had wasted precious minutes staring in horror as the Doctor remained still, as if he was unable to overcome whatever stroke he had been suffering from, and Ryan even suggested they go and help him. But then, all of a sudden, the Time Lord was lively again and was rushing toward the end of the jib, while Yasmin frantically tried all the keys in the ignition, and Ryan did some research on his phone. There were tutorials for pretty much everything online, surely he would find one about operating a crane?

Just as the police constable guessed, the last key she tried was the working one.

‘Okay, so now we just need to swing the arm round to meet that one.’

‘Right, I think this shows us. Ready?’ Ryan asked.

‘Every day’s a learning day.’

Following his explanations, she managed to get the crane in motion, and even managed to swing the arm…in the wrong direction, much to the Doctor’s annoyance.

‘Wrong way! Wrong way!’ He shouted, just as Ryan was doing the same inside the cabin.

‘I know. Shut up,’ she snapped at him.

 

The Time Lord was confident that his plan would work, and he shouted instructions to Karl, from his jib.

‘When the arms line up, just step across!’

Alas, the Gathering Coil managed to short-circuit the crane, sending electricity through the whole structure. Yasmin let go of the controls, as she could feel the electric wave through her gloves.

‘Don’t touch anything!’ She shouted at Ryan who was standing rooted where he was.

‘What are we going to do?’ He asked, and there was fear in his voice. ‘We’re trapped!’

 

The power surge stopped the crane dead, and the Doctor lost his balance. He only had two options at hand: falling from the crane, or getting electrocuted. He could see the burst of electricity running through the metallic structure, and he hoped that Ryan and Yasmin were alright. Bracing himself, he restored his balance by taking a firm grip on the structure and let out a terrible cry of pain as electricity rushed through his body. Memories of similar experiences instantly came to his mind: Davros sucking regeneration energy out of him, the Monk knocking him away with pure energy…

He suddenly let go of the structure and bent over, resting his palms on his knees, taking deep breaths. Then he straightened and looked at Karl, who was staring at him in amazement.

‘How did you do that?’

‘That was very unpleasant,’ said the Time Lord matter-of-factly. ‘Now tell me, am I burnt?’

’N…no,’ Karl replied, still wondering how the man had survived.

‘We obviously need a new plan now,’ continued the Doctor. ‘You can’t jump here, as you would be fried on the spot. So this means…’

He took a run up, jumped, and just managed to grab onto Karl’s crane, as everyone witnessing the scene let go a terrified ‘Oh, my God’.

Tzim-Sha chose this moment to make his move and he grabbed Karl.

‘Please! Help!’ The young man screamed.

‘I’m definitely too old for this,’ the Doctor whispered through gritted teeth, and he hauled himself onto the jib. ‘Tim Shaw! You stop right there!’

The alien turned around, and removed his faceplate, terrifying Karl a little more in the process.

‘Oh, he’s got a face of teeth!’

‘I know. I’ve got this,’ the Time Lord said with confidence. ‘Let him go... or I destroy this.’

He searched his pockets, struggling to find what he was looking for.

‘One second. I’ve got this.’

Tzim-Shaw smiled evilly and was about to turn around, when the Time Lord brandished a red glowing object.

‘Ha ha! Here it is! The recall from the pod you travelled in. I took it out. Without this, you can’t get home. If I fall, this falls with me. Then you’re stuck.’

 

Down at the building site, Grace and Graham were unpacking the cables, battery and stuff they used on the rooftop against the Gathering Coil.

‘Let’s do this.’

Grace was determined, and so was her husband.

‘Yeah. Come on.’

 

Tzim-Sha was clearly considering his options, but the Doctor didn’t want to take any risk that he’d cheat again.

‘What do you do with them, your human trophies?’ He asked.

Much to his surprise, the alien answered his question:

‘They’re held in stasis in our trophy chambers, on the cusp between life and death.’

The Time Lord cast him a disapproval glance:

‘How would you feel if someone did that to you?’

‘They’re not important.’

‘Hey! I’m important!’ Karl complained.

‘I can’t allow you or your people to keep doing this. Planet Earth is protected.’

‘By whom?’ Tzim-Sha wanted to know.

‘Me!’

The alien sneered, but he was very serious when he spoke next:

‘Give me the circuit or I detonate the bombs placed in your friends.’

‘Oh, by the way,’ the Doctor was now acting as if he was remembering something important. ‘Did your pet put one in Karl too?’

‘What?’ The young man squeaked.

‘There was no need. He was tagged. He is the trophy.’

‘I thought as much,’ the Time Lord smiled. ‘Right, you detonate the bombs, I’ll destroy the recall. So, what are we going to do?’


	13. All Is Well That Ends Unwell

Grace and Graham had a plan when they broke into the high voltage shed.

‘Right,’ Grace said. ‘You rewired the house, so you sort things out this end, I’ll climb up.’

But Graham wasn’t happy about this plan.

‘I don’t want you doing that.’

‘Graham, Ryan’s in danger. We don’t have time to argue. Give me t’signal when you’re ready.’

She had a point. There was no way she would let her grandson face danger alone.

‘Okay,’ he surrendered, and got a kiss in reward.

‘Is it wrong to be enjoying this?’ Grace smiled.

‘Yes!’

 

Back on the crane jib, the Doctor wasn’t done with Tzim-Sha just yet.

‘Poor Tim Shaw. The wannabe leader who has to cheat because he knows he’s unworthy,’ he said dramatically. ‘See, that’s why I know you won’t detonate. Although, you could prove me wrong because we are all capable of the most incredible change. We can evolve while still staying true to who we are. We can honour who we’ve been and choose who we want to be next. Now is your chance.’

There was something about the Time Lord that impressed Karl. He felt compelled to trust him implicitly, and he surely hoped that his speech would have a positive outcome.

‘Who are you?’ Tzim-Sha asked, finally realizing that his opponent might be more dangerous than he expected at first.

‘I’m the Doctor. That name alone should be proof enough that I’m not joking when I tell you to get off this planet while you still have a choice.’

But the alien wasn’t the kind of person to admit failure. He pressed an activation button, before dropping his faceplate a few moments later and starting to scream in pain.

‘I removed those nasty little things from my friends. And I implanted them back in your creature. Your transference wasn’t just data, it was physical. You got everything transferred to you, including five tiny bombs. You had a choice. You did this to yourself. Now go home.’

The Doctor threw the recall circuit to Tzim-Sha, who had started to melt. Karl got away from the alien who put the device onto his chest and vanished.

The young man stared at the Time Lord, obviously impressed:

‘Do I get to choose as well?’

The Doctor frowned, wondering what Karl had in mind:

‘If you mean choosing the kind of life you wish to live, then yes. Everybody should be allowed to choose a path to follow.’

‘Then I choose not to be a crane operator anymore. I’m not good with heights. It’s time for me to move forward. I’m important.’

‘Yes, you are,’ the Time Lord smiled. ‘Just like everybody else.’

That’s when he remembered Ryan and Yasmin, and worried about their safety, unaware that Grace had already taken the matter into her own hands.

 

She was wearing a protective suit, boots and gloves, and she had climbed up to the Gathering Coil.

‘Put a bomb in me, would you? Now Graham!’

She jabbed the creature with the drill while Graham threw the master switch in the high voltage shed. Electricity started to short out the Coil.

‘It’s working!’ Grace shouted happily.

She realized that her situation was a bit delicate when bits and pieces of the creature started to fall all around her. She straightened her grip on the ladder, hoping that she wouldn’t be knocked down.

‘It’s okay, love, you can come down!’

Graham’s voice betrayed his relief that it was over, and that she was safe. When she finally reached the ground, he ran to her, ready to hug her, but she gestured him to stay at the safe distance.

‘Not sure this suit didn’t take in some of that thing’s electricity. Lemme take it off first.’

She went back to the shed, while he stared at the crane. Yasmin and Ryan were climbing down the ladder, and so were the Doctor and Karl from the other crane.

He looked back at the shed, but Grace was still inside. That’s when he heard Yasmin’s terrified scream. He turned around, and his heart missed a heartbeat. Like in a dream, he saw Grace rush past him. He forced himself to put his legs into motion, and reached her seconds after she had collapsed on her knees, next to her grandson’s who was laying broken, on the ground.

‘I’m sorry, Nan,’ were Ryan’s last words. 


	14. Never Give Up Hope

Grace wasn’t familiar with YouTube, and it took her a few tries before she eventually managed to record herself live.

‘This is not my thing. I’m only doing it ‘cose he woul’ve like that. His Nan recording a video for him. I want to talk about the greatest boy I ever met. My grandson, Ryan, who died helping other people.

First, my daughter, six years ago, then Ryan.

He had his life ahead of him, he had so many things to see, so many things to learn, and now he is gone. I have to live without him, and I don’t know how to do that.

I love you, Ryan, and tomorrow I’m going out there for you.’

 

The Doctor watched from a distance, as Grace and Graham were sitting together on the edge of the cliff. Graham was holding Grace close to him. She was crying. The Time Lord let a flow of emotions run through him. He let them go freely, as he knew there was no way he could control them so close after regeneration. He remembered the faces of all the people he lost, and he didn’t feel sad. He felt grateful that he hadn’t forgotten them.

 

Grace had insisted that the Doctor stayed with her and Graham.

‘We could need some company, ya know…’

Yasmin had also been invited to come over as often as she wished. She was still in shock after witnessing Ryan’s fall, and she didn’t feel like being alone, or at home. Her family would be supportive, of course, but they wouldn’t believe her if she told them all what she had gone through, from chasing aliens to fighting them off the planet.

‘Doctor. Can I just say, you really need to get out of those clothes,’ she told the Time Lord as tactful as possible.

‘You’re probably right. But without my Tardis, I don’t have my wardrobe…’

He seemed genuinely confused, and Yasmin smiled:

‘I know just the place…’

 

Yasmin drove the Doctor to a charity shop nearby, and she had to refrain from laughing when she saw him go through the clothes, picking some as he went by the shelves and displays. She suddenly got concerned when he chose grey pants, a chequered shirt and a red jacket.

‘Oh, I could picture myself with a long scarf!’ He said when he saw himself in the mirror. ‘How do I look?’

He turned towards the young woman, and she just shook her head.

‘It’s definitely a no go.’

The Time Lord looked disappointed, but he chose other pieces of clothes nevertheless. This time he picked chequered pants, and probably the ugliest jumper she had seen in her life.

‘Question marks? Seriously? Are you pretending to be the Riddler or something?’

The Doctor looked confused, and she sighed:

‘Here, let me help you. We don’t have all day, you see.’

Inspiring herself from the clothes he had been wearing until now, she picked a white shirt, black pants, a matching jacket and a velvet frock coat.

‘Here, try this.’

The Time Lord did as he was told, and admired himself in the mirror once he was dressed.

‘This is more like it!’

‘Yes, it is,’ confirmed Yasmin.

 

A few days had passed. Grace and Graham had been busy organizing Ryan’s funeral, and the Doctor had made himself scarce to give them some privacy. He was, however, always around when they needed him. Grace needed the support, and he was willing to help her go through that difficult time, because in a way, he felt responsible for Ryan’s death.

They were standing at the chapel’s entrance, waiting for Ryan’s father to arrive.

‘What time did your son say he'd get here?’

‘Two hours ago,’ Grace replied, with sadness in her voice.

‘If he said he'll come...’

‘He says a lot of things. He's never been the best at being reliable. I mean, how can he not be here? He's his son. He would've wanted him here. I want him here.’

The Time Lord remained silent.

They both joined the others as the memorial service started. Grace had prepared a few words, and it took her all her will and strength to get up and stand in front of the crowd gathered to bid Ryan one last farewell.

‘When life takes back the joy it has given you, it’s hard not to feel angry. When Ryan lost his mother, he was the bravest boy I’ve ever seen, and having him stay with me all those years was the best thing a grandmother can ask for: a caring grandson to cherish. Now, of course, it wasn’t always easy, and there’s one regret that I’ll carry for the rest of my life. When I met Graham, when I thought he didn’t have much time left, I decided to include him in my life. I was hoping to give Ryan a caring grandfather. But the teenager he was three years ago rebelled against that idea. I never gave up hope, knowing that one day, Ryan would be proud of us, as a family. Never give up hope because he never did. Despite his condition, Ryan kept trying, hoping that he would finally ride his bicycle. I will never see him succeed. I will never see what a wonderful man he would have turned into, and that makes me sad. Ryan should still be here.’

 

Later on, the Doctor, Yasmin, Grace and Graham were standing outside Grace’s house.

‘What did you mean, when you said that you thought he'd run out of time?’ Asked the Time Lord to Grace, but Graham was the one to reply instead.

‘Oh, well, er, I had cancer and er... Well, strictly speaking, I'm still in remission, three years gone. And Grace was my chemo nurse. That's where we met and fell in love. So by rights, I shouldn't even be here.’

Grace took her husband’s hand and gently squeezed it, while Yasmin took this opportunity to learn a little more about the Doctor:

‘Have you got family?’

‘No. Lost them a long time ago.’

‘How do you cope with that?’ Grace wondered, trying to imagine how lonely he might feel.

‘I carry them with me. What they would have thought and said and done. I make them a part of who I am. So even though they're gone from the world, they're never gone from me.’

‘That’s beautiful,’ Grace confessed with tears in her eyes.

The young police constable realized that it was time to change the subject before they went all emotional again.

‘So everything we saw, everything we've lied to people about, is this normal for you?’

‘I'm just a traveller. Sometimes I see things need fixing, I do what I can,’ he paused, deep in his thoughts, before going on. ‘Except right now, I'm a traveller without a ship. I need to find my Tardis. Would you help me do that, please?’

 

They drove back to the industrial area, in Raul’s unit. The Doctor had an idea on how to locate his ship, but he needed to build a certain device first.

‘How long have we got to stand here for? I'm getting cramp,’ Graham complained as he was clutching a car battery.

The Time Lord ignored him. He needed to focus, but when Yasmin asked around if anyone understood what he was doing, he decided that they deserved an explanation.

‘My ship uses a particular type of energy. I've tracked that energy trail from the moment I lost it to where it is now. Now, given this is a transport pod, I'm configuring it to send me to the planet where my ship seems to have ended up.’

‘You're going to another planet?’ Yasmin wondered, clearly impressed.

‘That’s the general idea, yes. Except Stenza technology is really hard to decipher. 139 layers, seven of which don't make sense. Right. Graham.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Clamp those onto there.’

Graham clamped the crocodile clips onto the battery terminals.

‘All right.’

‘Jazz, I need you to thread the cable onto the top. Grace, you turn on the switch. All right. This is it I think.’

Like on cue, a microwave beeped.

‘That's it. It's connected up. It should work.’

He set the timer on the microwave.

‘It’s time to say goodbye. I hate goodbyes. Maybe we will see each other again. Maybe not. Be brave and be kind. This is all what matters. Oh, and never give up hope.’

Graham, Grace and Yasmin exchanged a glance, then waved goodbye to the Doctor. He took a deep breath, activated his sonic and pointed it towards the microwave. The timer reached zero, power surged through cables.

 

The Doctor didn’t need to open his eyes to know that something was very wrong. But when he did, he didn’t just get the confirmation that he was floating in the vacuum of space. There was something far worse than that. He wasn’t alone. Grace, Graham and Yasmin were floating next to him, already suffocating.


End file.
